Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Native pigs and soil cultivation

We revived our backyard piggery in the farm but this time, we're using the native pig varieties, close to the "baboy damo" (wild pigs) -- short, black hair, move a lot, eat vegetables and grasses, and "till" the soil with their pointed and strong nose.

They're fun to keep. Not choosy with food, they also have good immune system and seldom get sick. They particularly eat rice bran, sweet potato ("kamote") leaves, stems and tubers; "kangkong", other veggies.

No need to keep them in cages, our caretaker just tie a small rope around their neck and tie the other end of the small rope to a peg on the ground.

Using their strong nose, the pigs would "till" the soil as if looking for earthworms or other soil insects to eat, or perhaps some roots of grasses and vines. I kidded our caretaker, "instead of using cows or carabao or hand-tractor to plow your rice field, better wait for these pigs to grow bigger and let them plow the soil!" He laughed.

Being consumers of grasses and veggies, the pig manure don't small foul, unlike the manure of the commercial pig varieties like landrace. The animal waste are good materials for organic fertilisers.